Sentence Snakes - Pre-Intermediate - "Like"
This warmer encourages students to think about word order (using "like" as a preposition and a verb in questions), and gets them to move around and talk to each other.Pre-Intermediate

Next: Borrowing the Car
They waste hours in front of the TV and get their parents to spend money on designer clothes and haircuts. And they're not even three years old! A new survey in Britain says toddlers are increasingly leading a lifestyle once associated only with moody adolescents. (Children and parents, discussion, skimming, complete a table of information, true, false or not given, fractions, percentages, bar graphs, group brainstorming, pair crossword, like as a preposition.)Pre-Intermediate

Santa School
A school for Santas has opened in Japan, a country with little Christian tradition and a Christmas that is more about shopping than religion. (Santa, finding the main idea, gap fill, true or false, mixed sentences, sequencing, complete the picture.)Pre-Intermediate

The Iceman
An Icelandic fishing captain, known as "the Iceman" for his tough character, grabbed a 660-pound (300-kilogram) shark with his bare hands as it swam in shallow water toward his crew, a witness said. (Bizarre stories, sharks, fishing, Iceland and Greenland, predicting, mixed sentences, pronouns, suffixes, writing a rescue story, sea creature vocabulary.)Pre-Intermediate

SARS Vaccine
Tests of an anti-SARS vaccine may start in January 2004, but that would be too late to protect the public if the killer virus returns this winter, the World Health Organization said. (SARS, vaccines, understanding the main idea, comprehension, writing questions, summary, health words, peer dictation, crossword, too + adverb, adjective or much / many.)Pre-Intermediate

Night of a Thousand Dinners
At the Night of a Thousand Dinners people around the world share a meal to raise money for landmine clearance. This lesson looks at this event, some of the problems that landmines have caused in Afghanistan, and the dangers of landmines. (Landmine organizations, international issues, effect of landmine explosions on ordinary people, especially women, Afghanistan, reading and predicting, making sentences, jigsaw reading, comprehension, sharing information, check your understanding.)Pre-Intermediate

Breakfast Study
A new study suggests young adults may be less attentive in school when they skip breakfast. (Nutrition, importance of breakfast, nutritional needs of boys and girls, survey, understanding the main idea, matching sentence beginnings and endings, multiple choice questions, pairwork - talking about meals and performance in tests, sharing information game, frequency adverbs, countable and uncountable nouns and expressons of quantity.)Pre-Intermediate

Can't See The Trees
US cities have lost more than 20 percent of their trees in the past 10 years. This is due mainly to urban sprawl and highway construction. (Importance of trees, loss of trees in cities, understanding the main idea, crossword, interpreting a flowchart and transferring information, reading in detail, present simple, present perfect and past simple tenses, brainstorming.)Pre-Intermediate

Mystery Man
A man suffering from amnesia has caused problems for Norwegian police. They have asked the media to help identify the well-dressed, educated man after two months of unsuccessful investigations. (Missing persons, amnesia, categorizing words, listening for ideas, true or false, reading and thinking, class story, answering questions with short answers and positive and negative forms, Who is this person? game.)Pre-Intermediate

Find Someone Who - Languages
This warmer gets students out of their seats and asking other students questions about languages and places.Pre-Intermediate

A Rude Passenger
A Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Brisbane, Australia made an unscheduled stop to eject a passenger who became unruly after a heated argument with his girlfriend. The man may have to pay the A$25,000 bill. (Airplane travel, passenger behavior, sequencing, summarizing, discussion, true or false, interview, word forms, pair crossword.)Pre-Intermediate

New Age Cinema
Bawling babies have ruined films for countless moviegoers but now one New York cinema is filling an entire theater with them in an effort to win the business of stir-crazy parents who haven't gone out in years. (Cinemas, moviegoing habits, parenting and babies, what would you do, categorizing words, true or false, reading for details, meanings from context, conjunctions (and, but, so, because) find someone who..., describing a scene, present continuous tense, design project.)Pre-Intermediate

Student Wins Geography Prize
A 14-year-old who is taught at home by his mother beat 54 other students to win the title of U.S. National Geographic Bee champion and a prize worth $25,000. (Geography, competitions, homeschooling, sequencing, thinking carefully, describing and comparing two pictures game, word find puzzle.)Pre-Intermediate

Contradictions
Use this Warmer to practice giving short contradictory replies to statements.Pre-Intermediate

Idioms - True and False - Face
This warmer looks at idiomatic phrases to do with the word 'face' and can be used before the Lower-Intermediate Instant Lesson 'Top Dog May Be Cheat'.Pre-Intermediate

Tattoo for the Doctor
An 85 year-old widow is so determined not to be resuscitated against her will by doctors that she has tattooed the words "Do Not Resuscitate" across her chest. (Rights of patients, tattoos, finding the main idea, vocabulary in context, information search, a, an or the, discussion, 'Who am I?' game, dialogue.)Pre-Intermediate

Safe SUVs?
In a land where bigger is usually thought of as better, Americans love their sports utility vehicles and they are not going to give them up. (SUVs, fuel consumption, talking about cars, prediction, scanning, true or false, reading for detail, suffixes, discussion, matching sentence beginnings and endings, sell a car information transfer activity.)Pre-Intermediate

An Unusual Job
A missile storage space on a US aircraft carrier is a strange place to find a car salesman, but Paul St Pierre has spent the last five years on US navy ships selling motorbikes and cars to sailors with plenty of time on their hands and nowhere to spend their money. (Life on a warship, motorbikes, 'find someone who' game, different types of employment, understanding the headline, choose the best answer, true or false, 'even though'.)Pre-Intermediate

Chimney Sweep?
It may work for Santa Claus but two people found that going down a chimney may not be such a good idea unless you want to get stuck. (Bizarre stories, rescues, matching pictures and information, predicting, gap fill, reading for detail, comprehension, try + infinitive + to, role play, pair crossword.) Pre-Intermediate

Moving On
This warmer is a loud and enjoyable way to review topics and vocabulary. And it only takes 5 minutes. Really!Pre-Intermediate

No Driver's License
A German motorist who was sentenced to prison for repeatedly driving without a license was caught driving just moments after leaving the court, police said. (Careless driving, matching pictures and words, prepositions, word find, sequencing, comprehension, true or false, discussion, role-play.)Pre-Intermediate

Emerald Discovered in Shell
A diver has discovered a large emerald in a conch shell while diving at the site of a 380-year-old wrecked Spanish galleon. (Describing a picture, understanding a picture sequence, matching information and pictures, summarizing, listening for correct information, while with past simple and past continuous tenses, word find puzzle, discussion.)Pre-Intermediate

Checking Up on Supplies
The counting of toilet roll paper was successful for a British worker who won his employer thousands of pounds in compensation after he discovered that some rolls were not as long as they should be. (Consumer issues, information recall and exchange, working in pairs to reconstruct main points of a text, comprehension, too + adverb or adjective, word find puzzle, discussion and research activity.)Pre-Intermediate

Ghostly Stories
This warmer encourages spoken fluency through storytelling. A great introduction to a lesson about Halloween, ghosts or paranormal activity.Pre-Intermediate

Superlative Race
An inspiring and motivational way to practise the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.Pre-Intermediate

Child Tracking Devices May Be Next
A British scientist said he received many requests from worried parents asking him to implant a tracking microchip into their children after the murders of two 10-year-olds in a quiet English town. (Tracking devices and children's safety, understanding the main idea, matching words and meanings, choose the best answer, reading carefully, 'say' and 'tell'.)Pre-Intermediate

Mood Chart
This is a great warmer for class dynamics and fluency practice.Pre-Intermediate

Mime Your Holiday
This is a good activity to use when students have returned to school after a holiday.Pre-Intermediate

Topic Toss
This warmer is an engaging way to practice spoken fluency on a number of topics or language points and to encourage fellow classmates.Pre-Intermediate

The Things They Get Up To In Europe
Europeans may love their television remote controls but most still don't use computers, a new poll showed. (Comparison of habits of Europeans (television, reading, computer use and music), map reading, pronunciation of names of countries and nationalities, conducting a survey, the word 'only'.)Pre-Intermediate

That's stretching it
This warmer is effective when students are feeling lethargic and need something to help them focus on the next lesson.Pre-Intermediate

Phonemic Vocabulary Cards
This is a vocabulary warmer that empowers students, as they are usually very amused at my attempts to pronounce words in their language.Pre-Intermediate

Mangrove Forest Under Threat
Bangladesh and India will work together under a UN plan to protect the Sundarban, the world's biggest mangrove forest. (Conservation, mangrove forests, endangered species, discussion, superlative adjectives, crossword.)
Pre-Intermediate

The right mood
This is a way of getting students into the right frame of mind for studying; especially if your class is after lunch time.Pre-Intermediate

Sun-Protected Students
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released new guidelines urging schools to try to protect children from excess sunlight to help prevent skin cancer later on in life. (The danger of the sun, scanning, use of the pattern 'urge + object + to + infinitive.)Pre-Intermediate

All Roads Lead to...a Student's House
This activity brings fun and excitement to your pronunciation lesson. This warmer also has a complementary Instant Workbook exercise.Pre-Intermediate

Verb Ball Toss
This is a fun vocabulary or grammar revision warm up activity that can also be used as a drill.Pre-Intermediate

High on Music
Thailand has some new recruits for its war against the country's narcotics problem -- a team of convicts jailed for drug offenses have formed the country's first ever prison choir. (Talking about music and its effect on behavior, comparing things, debating.)Pre-Intermediate

Stuck!
A man squeezed into a garbage chute in an apartment building to retrieve a favorite old sweater thrown away by his wife, but got stuck between floors... (Rescue story, apartment buildings, garbage chutes, crossword puzzle.)
Pre-Intermediate

At the movies!
This warmer is an interesting and effective way to introduce a new theme or topic.Pre-Intermediate

Expert
An effective and fun warmer that can be used in the middle or towards the end of a lesson when students' attention might waver.Pre-Intermediate